One More Variation
by Erin87
Summary: A small one shot, a sort of add on to the S5 ep, 'The Daedalus Variations'. Sparky undertones, but nothing overly couple-y.


A.N.1: This is an add on to the season 5 episode 'The Daedalus Variations'. While I was watching the episode I couldn't stop thinking about something like this happening, so I felt to compelled to write it.

Note: Rodney's dialogue in the first paragraph is taken directly from the episode, but nothing else is.

Enjoy!

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"Well, I haven't had a chance to check it out. I'm sorry I can't do ten things at once!" said Rodney, irritation evident in every word. "I already told you, the drive is gonna burn out, soon. We have to _do_ something. Who's to say the next reality won't be even worse?" With that the scientist turned and marched briskly off the bridge and back down to the room that housed the alternate reality drive, his eyes glued to the ever present data pad he carried in his hands.

"Well, that's optimism for you," said John, settling back in the somewhat battered helmsman's seat and taking a deep breath.

"He's probably right though," replied Ronon calmly, bracing his arms against the computer console behind him and leaning back. "There's been some pretty nasty stuff wrong with almost every reality we've been to so far."

"Yeah, but we're not going to mention that to him."

"Definitely not," said Teyla with a small smile. She glanced at the schematics of the ship that were displayed on the screen next to her, a constant reminder of the pitiful shape the vessel was in, and the smile faded. She sighed. "I will go help Rodney with his work as best I can. Now that our time is limited we must be ready before the next jump if at all possible."

Ronon pushed himself upright off of the console and moved to join her. "And I wanna go check out those aliens again. See if they have any more weapons on them."

"Okay," agreed John, then pointed at Ronon, "But you hurry back. You need some seriously more in-depth rail gun lessons before we start skipping backwards."

"Fine." The colonel exchanged a nod with both of his teammates and then the pair exited the bridge, disappearing around the corner at the same time.

Now that he was alone, John sank even farther into the black leather of his chair and tiredly ruffled his shock of black hair, sighing deeply. This had been quite a day. And it wasn't even over yet. They still had to get back past the red giant star that had swallowed their planet, and that less-than-friendly alien ship that seemed to have a serious grudge against the Atlanteans of that reality. No, this day was far from over.

He stared out at the void of space that was laid out in front of the windshield that spanned the width of the bridge and felt his mind start to wander as he watched the hundreds of asteroids in the belt dance past the window, the diamond-like stars glinting quietly in the background. The same stars that he was used to... only they weren't.

This daze continued for about half a minute more, until an alarm began flashing on one of the screens and snapped him out of it. It indicated another power spike. McKay's voice began yelling over his radio, telling him that they were about to make another jump. _'Dammit'_ thought John. He had hoped that this depressingly stark and empty reality would be the last one they'd have to discover. But obviously this was not their day for catching any sort of break.

The now familiar white light began to grow around him and he closed his eyes against the blinding glare. Ronon and Rodney's words of a few minutes ago darted through his mind and he braced himself for the worst.

o

The flash was over almost as soon as it had begun. The light died and John opened his eyes to yet more stars. However, the view wasn't blocked by asteroids anymore. It was just your average expanse of distantly twinkling stars. He got out from behind the station he had been sitting at and walked over to one of the screens mounted on the wall nearest him. There was a planet below them this time. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing he had yet to determine, but at least so far the dire predictions that had been running through his head didn't seem to be coming true.

Rodney's voice came pouring in a rapid stream through his headset again, informing him of what the scan in front of him had already told him. They were the only ship in the area, and this planet was home to yet another version of Atlantis. Other than that, there wasn't much to be told.

"Okay Rodney, get back to work," ordered John.

"Are you going to try and contact them?" asked McKay, completely ignoring the command.

John glared at the ceiling in frustration. "I don't see much of a point, since we're going to be leaving soon anyway. And since there's nobody trying to kill us at this particular moment, I'm willing to let things stand as they are. Now _work_, Rodney. We don't know how many jumps this thing has left in it and I'd personally rather spend them getting closer to home instead of farther away from it!"

A miffed sounding 'Fine' issued from the radio, and then there was silence. John sighed again and studied the screen some more. He really didn't see a need to try and make contact with these Atlanteans. Unless the people, assuming that's what they were, down there communicated with them themselves, he was perfectly content to simply remain the mysterious ghost ship until it was time for him and his team to be on their way again. Besides, he wasn't quite in the mood to have to try and explain things to an alternate Woolsey right at that moment.

There was a beep from the console behind him. He turned to look at it and found an incoming audio transmission request flashing up at him. Another tired sigh escaped him but he sank down in the captains chair and okayed the request anyway. He couldn't blame them for their curiosity - after all his Atlantis had done the exact same thing - but he really didn't want to have to spend this jump having to deal with another stuffy, by-the-book stickler for the rules who never...

"Hello?" The transmission was coming through. John froze, his heart skipping a beat. It definitely wasn't Richard Woolsey. That voice... was that...? "Hello Daedalus, this is Atlantis, do you copy? Daedalus, this is Elizabeth Weir. Are you reading us?"

It was like someone had poured ice water through his veins. There was a knot in his stomach and his throat suddenly felt dry. Of all the possibilities... for some reason he'd never thought...

"Daedalus, _do you read_?" Her voice was distinctly impatient now. Having been on the receiving end of that tone many times, he could picture her face in his head, eyebrows knitted together, brown curls brushing her shoulders, green eyes sharp and penetrating. "This is..."

He swallowed, forcing moisture down his throat so he could speak, although he found himself barely knowing what to say. "Atlantis, this is the Daedalus."

"John?" He could hear the astonishment. "What... you're off-world, how did you get...?"

"Yeah... about that..."

"John, what did you do?"

He contained the sudden uncalled for burst of laughter that welled up in him, but couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. Her voice was so familiar... that gently accusatory yet knowing inflection, the one that he had heard so often. For an instant, the last two years melted away, and it was like he had just come back from a normal mission, and she was scolding him for irritating the natives of some planet they'd visited.

But just for an instant. "The thing is... I _am_ off-world. Or, the me that you know is anyway. I'm... we're from an alternate reality. This ship showed up above our Atlantis and we got trapped inside. It has a drive that lets it travel from one reality to another and it's been stuck on a one way trip."

"Oh." He could hear her trying to process the news. "Is... is there anything we can do to render assistance? Maybe Dr. McKay could..."

"No thanks. We've got one of those working on it already. It's best if you just stay where you are. Don't worry. We'll be out of your hair soon enough."

"Alright. But I'm sure you understand that we are very curious about how exactly you got here. I mean, it's not every day a veritable ghost ship from another reality lands on our doorstep."

He gave a small smile. "No, I guess not."

"You said it was a one way trip..." He guessed where she was going with this.

"We've got a plan to get home." He bit his lip. Here he had one last chance to talk to her and he couldn't think of anything to say. Or rather, he could think of too many things to say. He had a hundred questions, none of which he could ask without a lot of difficult and complicated explanation that there really wasn't time for. "So..."

"So I'll let you and your people get back to work," she said. "I imagine you probably have a lot of things more important to do than spend your time talking to me."

She was going to cut the transmission. A wild desperation seized him. He couldn't let her go just yet. "Elizabeth..."

"Yes?"

"I... I'm glad you're okay." He winced after the words left his mouth. That was bound to sound strange to her, but...

The voice on the other end of the line hesitated for a moment. Even from orbit he could tell what she was thinking, just as easily as he had with his own Elizabeth. She was reading between the lines, figuring out what that meant, that if he was glad that she was okay, then her alternate must have...

Her voice was soft when she finally spoke again. "Thank you... Colonel?"

"Yeah, it's colonel." He nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see. She knew what he had said, and, even though her curiosity must have been killing her, she wasn't going to ask.

"I am though," she added, sounding unsure of herself, like she didn't quite know why she was telling him that. "Okay."

He swallowed again, and his voice was somewhat heavy as he spoke. "Good."

There was silence for a few moments, then another beep from a console. He glanced over at it. The audio feed from the planet crackled to life again. "We're picking up a power spike coming from your ship," said Elizabeth.

"Yeah, we're about to go into another jump."

Rodney's voice blared over the ship's comm. "Alright, I've made the adjustments to the drive! We should start going backwards this time!"

He didn't reply. The readouts began to shriek that the power level was continuing to peak, but he fixed his gaze on the glowing blue diagram of the planet below, finding the small dot that represented the city. "Well... goodbye Elizabeth." His throat went dry again, catching slightly. He had never really gotten a chance to say it before, and this was likely as close as he was ever going to get.

"Goodbye Colonel," she said quietly. "I hope you make it home."

"Yeah..." The white light flared up and surrounded him. He rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, closed his eyes and covered them with his hand. And then it was gone. "...me too," he whispered.

He lowered his hand wearily and opened his eyes to a lifeless field of asteroids wheeling slowly by in their endless cosmic wanderings. It had worked. They were skipping back the way they had come. He knew he should go talk to McKay now, but he didn't get up, just sat motionless in the captain's chair, staring out the window.

He had talked to Elizabeth. She had survived the move to the new planet, she was in charge of the city. _'Like it should have been for us.'_

While he had been speaking with her, he had felt strangely... light. Easy. But now she was gone, and all the time that had passed since he'd last heard that voice came crashing back down on him, all that had happened, all that was happening now... It was like a weight had settled on his shoulders, heavy and smothering. A burden he hadn't even realized he was carrying. The knowledge that when, _if_, they made it home, there would be no Elizabeth there to welcome them back.

But there was still that major 'if' to contend with. John ran his fingers through his hair and tried to rub away the headache that was building up just above his eyes. He locked away all the thoughts that were swarming around in his head about what had just taken place, most especially the imaginings of what those people's lives must be like, and forced himself out of the chair and headed for the drive room. There was that blasted sun to go through next and they had to be ready.

As he stalked down the empty gray corridors, once again his teammates previous comments about alternate worlds echoed through his head. Yes, he agreed that almost every reality they had come across so far had been full of things that were seriously wrong. Only this time he couldn't help but think that maybe theirs was one of them.

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A.N.2: Well, hope you liked it and please please review!!


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